


petals on a wet, black bough

by entanglement



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8238688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglement/pseuds/entanglement
Summary: she's become my personal totem





	

"What's with the notebook?"

Elliot looks up from the crack on the basketball court's asphalt he'd been focusing on to see her, hot Carla, idling beside the smoldering remnants of a blue book with its cover missing all but the back wheel of a bicycle. She glances back at the book and back to him.

"Too depressing. The guy was dead the whole time," she says. She climbs onto the bleachers and sits in Leon's usual spot. "You a writer?"

He prefers the one-sided conversations he has with Leon where there's no questions asked and he can set Leon's voice to low priority in his process list, but Leon's across the yard, absorbed in the makings of some sort of deal. Seems Elliot's trapped in the conversation for now.

He shrugs and says, "something like that."

"Me too. 'Somethin' like that'," she says, laughing, "I dunno if you can call yourself a writer 'til someone pays you for it. Seems like getting paid is the confirmation for everything else."

On Elliot's other side, Mr. Robot barks out a laugh and says, "I like her."

\--

Carla's a regular out in the yard, burning through books that were too dull or two predictable, but one day, she brings out two books with her, but one burns one: something by Agatha Christie.

"Lady really has a thing against going on vacation. Someone always gets murdered," she says and grins when it makes Elliot crack a smile.

The second book, _Ubik_ , is placed in his lap and she pats its worn cover a couple times.

"I think you'll like it. Suits your vibe."

Elliot takes the book, but finds it missing from his cell before he can get around to opening it and thankfully Carla just shrugs when he confesses he lost it. When he's Mr. Robot, he pulls it from under the mattress of the shitty cot in his cell and continues to read.

\--

Carla's burning a copy of a book with the word 'sweetheart' in the cover that remains by the time Elliot looks back to her behind the bleachers. She frowns as she watches the fire lick at the cover, blistering the rest of the plastic before turning it black. They don't chat that day.

\--

They never ask why the other is there. 

Elliot's in Carla's cell, watching her put together her makeshift makeup for the day while he waits for the next part of his daily schedule to arrive. She passes the end of a black colored pencil over a match a few times, lets it cool slightly and then brings it to her eye, wincing as she lines it.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Elliot asks.

"Beauty always comes with a price," she says, looking up at Elliot, "That's how I know I'm beautiful."

The day before, Leon had said something about making a choice to create a beautiful life and now he sees Carla with one eye lined and pain lingering behind both of them. He finds himself wanting to finally ask her why she's here, but before he can, she dips her head down to line the other eye. She lightly powders her cheekbone with baby powder and rubs a wrinkled piece of newspaper against it, transferring the background of the ad on the page to tint her cheek in a rosy pink.

\--

The day before Elliot's sudden release, Elliot joins Carla at her funeral pyre for other writers and tries to burn his own work. He'd never shared it, but the sight of seeing someone give up when what they've done could be brilliant makes her feel hopeless and empty. He sets it down onto the grate in the yard and sets fire to it with a certainty that says he'd already sentenced his own words to death long before they came to rest here.

She waits for him to leave, puts out the fire and stuffs the remnants of the notebook into her jumpsuit.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired mostly by the 1st page of red wheelbarrow
> 
> books carla burns (in case you were wondering):  
> the third policeman by flann o'brien  
> death on the nile by agatha christie  
> sputnik sweetheart by haruki murakami
> 
> ubik is by phillip k. dick


End file.
